A job I dislike

I love just about everything that has to do with fall. The smells, colors, sights and cooler weather are just wonderful. But there is one thing that I dread doing and I usually put it off until the last minute. It is the swapping out of summer clothes to winter clothes. I dislike it for a number of reasons.

I like to think that I am a relatively organized person. I have big tubs full of clothes that have been neatly folded and placed according to size. I have them labeled so that it is easy to locate the correct sizes and do an easy swap. Unfortunately it doesn't work this way.

First of all each brand of clothing has their own sizes. It is not uncommon to have 2 shirts labeled 5T and in actuality one of them would fit Bennett and one would fit Owen. So then I am in a quandary as to where to put the shirt. Do I put it in the 5T box even though it fits a 4 year old? When I decide that I should put it in the box that I think is the right size regardless of what the tag says then undoubtedly the next season I am wondering what idiot put all the wrong sizes in the box and I end up re-sorting them over and over.

And then what do you do with shirts that can't commit to just one size. Where do I put a shirt that is labeled 4T/5T when I have a box for 3T/4T and one for 5T/6T. I don't know. To top it off, there are always a handful of shirts that completely reject the number sizes and just have s,m,l for their size. Well who do these shirts fit and what box should they go in?

Then what do you do when you have kids that wear different sizes and these sizes have no correlation whatsoever to the tag. Taylor is tall and has to wear slim pants. He cannot fit into regular pants. Bennett wears regular size pants and Owen wear regulars but Owen usually wears a larger shirt. So if I have a shirt that is labeled 5T but I think is small for its size and Owen is age 4, but usually wears a size larger than his age, what the heck do I put him in and in which box would it be located? I have no idea.

While I am sorting without fail I will try and figure out where certain clothes have gone. How is it even possible that Owen can have 10 winter shirts that he fits into and no jeans. He has 2 older brothers. What did they wear when they were his age and where did they go? And why on earth can I only find one decent long sleeved church shirt for Bennett. I know Taylor did not go naked to church. What did he wear and where did it go? You can't tell me that we have no 12 mo. pants for Chasey. I know we have some. Where did they go?

Can you see how this is frustrating for someone who is trying to stay organized? With 4 boys and at least 8 sizes I am dealing with it gets chaotic. I have piles in every size for 2 different seasons, ones that are going back in the tubs and ones that are coming out. I usually end of having each boy try on a variety of sizes to see what fits. Then the rest of the clothes get shoved into a box, very unorganized like until the next season. Then it starts all over again. I am glad I am done until spring.